“Why, Lucy,” said Royal, “water couldn’t spout out of a pump unless there was something to make it.”
“Yes it could,” said Lucy; “I saw it. It was nothing but a red post so high.”
Here Lucy held out her hand again, to indicate to Royal the height of the post.
“And what do you suppose made the water come out?”
“I don’t know,” said Lucy; “only I know that there was nothing there but a post, for I saw it myself. The water came up out of a box in the ground.”
“How do you know?” said Royal.
“Why, I saw it,” replied Lucy. “I lifted up the cover of the box, and looked in, and it was full of water. I mean to ask my father to buy such a post, and put it in our yard.”
“O Lucy,” said Royal, with a laugh, “it couldn’t be—not unless there was a lead pipe, or something to come along under the ground, for the water to run in.”
“No,” said Lucy, “there wasn’t any lead pipe; it was nothing but a post. I saw it myself.”
“There must be a lead pipe,” said Royal, very positively, “under the ground, or else the water wouldn’t spout up.”